Grid Painting

Here’s a project that my six-year-old wanted to try after thinking about this painting that was made by her Daddy. Can you tell that this is a ladybug?

We used a piece of printable canvas and acrylic paints since that’s what we had on hand. She drew the ladybug with pencil, then I left the room to look for a ruler. When I came back, she had drawn her own grid. Well, OK! You could make the squares as small or as large as you want them. I asked her to paint one square at a time and leave some space around the edges, but she took it from there. She had a couple of spots that she painted the wrong color, but since we were using acrylic paint we let the paint dry and she painted over them. I think she made some interesting art and managed to use both sides of her brain in the process.

It’s a great picture, as is the one by her dad. Have you ever seen the work by Chuck Close – it works in a similar way to this, by focusing on the main colours in each square. She might like to see how similar her work is to his?